East Bay Eats & Stuff

The last few weekends Matt and I have been in the East Bay every weekend. Concerts, food, art galleries, food, film fests, food, passing out fliers....food! Yes, we love our food!

Eat Real Fest was awesome once again. We got to try S+M Vegan and I fell in love with their bbq slider.  We also snacked on Spicy Balovento chocolate, Seitan wingz from Souley Vegan and filled up our water bottle a few times from the water spot!

 

A bite of heaven: A Mollie Rose bun stuffed with bbq pulled seitan, aioli and slaw. 

Wingz!

My new fave chocolate from Barlovento Chocolates - went to the Grand Lake Farmer's Market the next weekend to buy more.

Hello Source Mini - sorry it took us so long to get on over to you. Now we cannot leave! We finally made our way over to Source Mini after missed meetings, not finding the location, hesitation - all lame excuses. After we both tried burgers we just fell in love. This Source outpost has the original beat tenfold, customer service and food improvement alone has me doing my best Fonz with two thumbs in the air.  The burgers are house made patties composed of beets so you get that lovely red tint to your bite. The fries are done to perfection and I love mine drenched in garlic aioli (I can drink the stuff). This is our new spot and we hit it up both days we were in town and already planning our next burger run.

Spicy Peper & Onions - My fave because of Sriracha!

 

 Grand Lake Farmer's Market picnic spread via Liba Fallafel. 

 

 Power snacks to power us  through a cemetery hike and magazine shopping via Timeless Coffee.

 

 While on Piedmont we hung out at a pumpkin patch and the hay made my butt itch.

 

We will be back shortly to the East Bay. More burgers, cemeteries and chocolate treats to come! We have some zine-film stuff in the works so I will be talking about that shortly so stay tuned!

Mountain Bound - Vegan Food & Film Fest

Matt's movie ('fake' trailer') made it into ITSA Film Festival and since it was local we got to go see his movie up on the big screen again. Last year was our first year to ITSA and mountain driving and can I just say that we are city folk...Car sickness happens to both of us and it is not fun! 

Before the horror film block started Matt took me to dinner and a brief walk around Murphey's. I was hoping to see more Dia De Los Muertos action going on but since we got up there at 6 maybe it died down. Most shops had decorations. We checked out the bookstore who had an altar to the writers who passed this year. No pictures - sorry! I wish we got to see more...Next year!

Our main reason to go to Murphey's was Mineral Restaurant. I have talked about Mineral before - it is worth the car sickness to go eat here! The food is divine!

Pillow-y focaccia with herb olive oil. These little slices of bread are so light and airy. The just float in your mouth. The sea salt sprinkle on top brings a balance and a tang to the bread that is really nice.

I had a ginger drink that was refreshing and crisp. 

Matt had an organic beer!

We went to Mineral for one thing and one thing only - the burger! Well, the burger now comes in a slider form - so you can share. Ya - right like that is going to happen! Toasted house made vegan challah bun, beet burger patty, vegan mayo, caramelized onions and a side of house made chips. These are art for your mouth. The flavors range from sweet to smoky and they come together to form a masterpiece. The bread is sweet but not sickly, like a French toast but not so sweet...The burger has a earth smoky flavor that is very savory and comforting. Matt as you know by now hates onions and did not even notice the onions on the burger...Everyone had sliders on their table - no joke! If you want to experience fine dining vegan style go to Mineral - now! You will not be sorry!

If you have not seen Matt's 'fake' trailer yet please go watch it! All blood is vegan!

Oakland + Berkeley = A Day of Teaching, Food And Fun!

 Me telling Matt - don't take a pic of me plleeeasssee as I set up my first class!

I taught two classes in Oakland on Saturday - both on vegan body care using simple everyday kitchen ingredients. While the turn out & crowd was not what I expected (not to mention the second location was filthy) I sold some zines and taught two classes! So yay!

I made a destination check list of the hot spots I wanted to check out, eat and shop at. Well, we got up later than we thought and I was feeling rather crappy. So between my two classes we decided to eat lunch, first location - closed (Breakroom Cafe) and then we went to our usual place that told us that they were open but the kitchen was closed (Peeple's Donuts) we had little time so we searched for eats on our phone and went to Flaco's.

We got a plate of taquitos to share with an assortment of the avocado salsas. We both thought they were good - the crunchy corn bit was yummy and the salsa was yummy - the hot was really hot! The inside could have used a bit more working, essentially you get a piece of faux sausage with the corn wrapped around it. I would have like it crumbled with beans or something. It was good though and was washed down with strawberry agua fresca!

 Flaco's gave me enough energy to get me through my next class!

 We were supposed to go to SF after my last class to eat dinner but I was really drained. So we decided to go to Berkeley and explore! Matt was so happy seeing that his two fave movie/music stores were practically neighbors. I checked out a few stores and was ecstatic to see they had a Tutti Frutti serving vegan soy yogurt! After having a sample Matt and I got a few bites topped with strawberries in a cup to go. It was so good and creamy!


We headed off to dinner, finding alternatives but then seeing they were closed headed on our original route to Nature's Express. Matt ordered the Wild Wild West burger and I ordered the Cheezy Mushroom Chic-un  Melt. We were served our orders but they were mixed up, so I started eating Matt's burger and he was eating mine, we then realized the mistake and we both thought the food was great. I really liked my item! The fries were really skimpy in portion though, they combined our individual orders into one basket, I think they did this because they were out of a full serving of fries for each of us...No way is a full serving of fries 6 fries if that. We took a cookie to go, went next door and got a coffee with soy milk and drove home.

It was a fun day - long though and I was so tired. I am still tired! I am looking forward to going back to Oakland in a week or so to support Matt's film being shown at a film festival!